


The Prince, The Wardens and The Magicians

by persephoneregina



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band), ONEUS (Band), ONEWE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Blessings, Cat/Human Hybrids, Charms, Fawn/Human Hybrids, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Healing Magic, Human Cruelty, Hybrid magic, Hybrids, Magic, Magic-Users, Mentions of War, Natural magic, Rituals, Softness, Tiger/Human Hybrids, Wholesomeness, Wolf/Human Hybrids, YAY HYBRIDS, fairytale, humans are evil, soft, underlying romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26638348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephoneregina/pseuds/persephoneregina
Summary: Once upon a time, in a fragile, beautiful realm far, far away, where an eternal winter would constantly bless the landscape with the silver kiss of snowflakes crystallizing in an endless still-life anything under the sky, a sweet, young prince lived and ruled on his magical court...
Relationships: Lee Donghun/Kang Yuchan | Chan/Kim Sehyoon | WOW
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	The Prince, The Wardens and The Magicians

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elutherya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elutherya/gifts).



> Hello darlings, ready for yet a new fairytale?  
> This is a present for [Rene](https://twitter.com/Elesteria), which I thank with all of my heart for the generous support and the incredible gift of their friendship, which is indeed the most precious thing in my life.  
> I love you a lot <3
> 
> Please if you enjoy this little story leave a comment and/or kudos and, if you want to keep up with my works and projects, consider following me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/persefoneregina).  
> Nothing but love for all of you!!!

Once upon a time, in a fragile, beautiful realm far, far away, where an eternal winter would constantly bless the landscape with the silver kiss of snowflakes crystallizing in an endless still-life anything under the sky, a sweet, young prince lived and ruled on his magical court.

Half a human, half a cat, Prince Yuchan took great care of his people, protecting his court of hybrid creatures with any means and always willing to take stray hybrids in to give them a place to live in, the safety they needed, the appreciation they deserved for their absolute uniqueness. Gifted with an incredible kind of magic that allowed him to dissolve any kind of illness at the sole touch of his hands, the young Prince would assist everyone in need with incredible selflessness and not give any second thought about it, no matter how severe or heavy the situation was.

Prince Yuchan had built a corner of Heaven on Earth for his people, who very dearly loved him, but what he could never provide, no matter how hard he tried, was enough food for everyone, and the more time went by, the more this issue grew alongside with the population.

So, he began to travel far and wide, outside of his winter wonderland, to other realms where he would trade his magic for food supplies, escorted by his ever loyal guards, Sehyoon and Donghun, respectively a wolf and a tiger hybrid, who would protect him from any harm and make sure no one would lay a hand on their precious sovereign.

But as time went by, the more Yuchan spent his magic for the sake of others, the weaker he grew.

Initially, short naps would be enough for him to get back on his feet feeling completely renewed, yet that did not last long. Soon enough, the Prince needed to rest for hours after performing his magic, and then hours became days, and then days became full weeks.

Eventually, everyone in the realm grew so concerned for Yuchan’s health that his very guards had to forbid him to travel for more than once every three months.

Nonetheless, the situation had become unsustainable under both points of view: jeopardizing the Prince’s health was clearly an unacceptable option, but condemning the whole population to starve to death was not a practicable solution either. They had to abandon their realm and find another place in the world, where they could have eventually been able to live and prosper, without the constant fear of losing their beloved sovereign or with the uncertainty as to how they would have been able to endure the unending hunger.

Even though extremely reluctant towards this kind of solution, Prince Yuchan had to acknowledge that they were left no choice, so he agreed to go on one last trip, alongside with Sehyoon and Donghun, to look for a new land where to rebuild his realm.

They had been traveling through the endless expanses of snow for days and days, enduring snowstorms and blizzards and tempests, without a single patch of green grass in sight for miles, when eventually, tired and cold, they arrived at the entrance of a forest and walked in to seek shelter through the tall trunks of the pines.

“Your Majesty, I suggest we find a spot to rest for the night. From here, we can proceed tomorrow.” Suggested Donghun, who opened the line, worried about the fragile prince, who looked clearly tired and in need of rest.

“Yes, you’re right. We’ve gone far enough for today. We’ve earned a good night’s rest.” The Prince answered, caressing the soft ears and hair of his sweet tiger guard, who let out a muffled purr at the touch, rubbing his head against Yuchan’s hand to enjoy the well deserved pets.

“Wait,” shuddered Sehyoon, sniffing the air surrounding them and instinctively stretching his arm in front of Yuchan, claws out in a defensive stance, to prevent him from going any further “We’re not alone.” He glanced around them, carefully studying the environment and looking for a trembling in the shadows, a movement or any other trace that could have given away the other creatures present in the woods, but nothing happened until they lowered their guard.

Not long after Sehyoon announced his assumption, though, the three of them heard a sound similar to the one of a twig breaking and fast steps running in the snow.

“You stay here.” Sehyoon ordered his fellow guard and the Prince “I’ll scout ahead. Keep him safe, Donghun, and if anything happens I will be one whistle away.”

The wolf guard disappeared in the black and white landscape shortly after, leaving Donghun standing tall and strong, arms sternly wrapped around the Prince’s small frame and tail tightened around his waist, keeping him warm with his body head and his cape.

They waited for what seemed to be hours like that, in perfect silence, eyes carefully scanning their surroundings and ears well pricked to attentively listen to any sound, when eventually Sehyoon’s silhouette appeared again, hugged by the lights of the sunset beaming around him like a halo, clouds of mist coming from his mouth as he breathed heavily, his steps weighed by something he was holding in his arms.

“Your Majesty,” He huffed, as soon as he was close enough, gently laying down on the snow the heavy bundle he was carrying “You need to see this… I couldn’t leave them…”

When Sehyoon untied the knot and unfolded his mantle, what Yuchan and Donghun saw left them shocked and gasping, horrified: there were two fawn hybrids, curled up one against the other, with blood stains around their calves and ankles, trembling with fear and eyes filled with tears. 

“Thank you, Sehyoon, you did well.” The Prince said, sitting down on his heels and focusing on the two wounded hybrids “Fear not, darlings, you are safe with us now. I’m Prince Yuchan and they are my faithful guards, Donghun and Sehyoon. We will protect you. Here, have some water.” Yuchan gently said, handing them his flask, from which they both drank in turns. 

“Do you mind telling us what happened?” The prince asked, when he noticed that the creatures had stopped trembling and seemed to feel a little more at ease.

“Hunters, your Majesty… Human ones… We got caught in their leghold traps. I got away with just a scratch, but my twin brother, Dongju, had it worse. As you can see, his leg got mauled. We were looking for shelter when your kind Wolf guard found us and rescued us. If it weren’t for him, we would have probably frozen to death.” The bigger fawn boy said, his wide hazel eyes pointed on his sibling’s leg and his hand never leaving the tight grasp of his brother’s fingers.

“What is your name?” Yuchan kindly inquired, his hands already traveling along his hurt ankle to determine the severity of the wound.

“Dongmyeong… My name is Dongmyeong.” He answered, flinching at the gentle touch of the Prince’s pads on his swollen joint.

“Do you and your brother have a home, a family we can escort you safely to?”

“Yes, me and Dongju live in a small cottage in a valley on the other edge of the forest. It’s not too far from here, we won’t steal too much of your time.” Dongmyeong said, pointing with a nudge of his head in the direction he meant.

“Very well then. Sehyoon, Donghun, listen to me now. No matter what happens to me, you will take them back to their valley. Dongmyeong, you don’t have to worry now. I will heal you both and tomorrow morning you will be good as new. Now try to lay down and stay calm for as much as you can.” Yuchan said, ignoring the worried gazes that Donghun and Sehyoon were exchanging at his back. 

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Both of the guards answered, at once, bowing down to the will of their Prince. They knew there was not much they could have done, at that point, to change Yuchan’s mind, so they stepped back and prayed that the worst would not happen.

Yuchan knew it was risky for him, even more so since his energies were very low from their march, the cold and the hunger, but he couldn’t leave them like that and condemn them to certain death. The prince stretched his arms forward towards the twins and closed his eyes, fluffy ears bent to the sides and tail standing straight at his back to sense any danger. Then, a glimmering white light, emanating from his palms, enveloped the frames of the two young fawns, while the Prince winced and shuddered in visible pain, so intense it almost brought him to tears. When he had finished, Yuchan fell unconscious on his back, pools of blood spreading wider and wider from his fingertips on the white, glimmering snow. Both of his guards dropped on their knees and promptly picked him up, wrapping him tight in their mantles and making sure that he was still breathing. 

The Prince was alive, but that unforeseen ritual had drained him more than any other ever before did.

“Let’s get them out of the cold, hurry!” Donghun urged Sehyoon, as he picked up the Prince in his arms and the wolf guard easily lifted up the two fawns in his strong arms.

Not very distant from where they were, Sehyoon and Donghun managed to find a cave where to find shelter and light up a bonfire, while the Prince and the two unfortunate twins were deeply asleep. The two guards took turns to give each other the time to sleep and hunt, while watching over them. It was a long night for the both of them, who feared for the lives of Yuchan, Dongju and Dongmyeong the whole time.

When the first morning lights began to shine their warm glow on the frozen forest, kissing the snow with their pale golden hue, they heard a fumbling coming from the pile of pillows and blankets where the three were resting: the first one to wake up, wiggling his soft, tawny ears as he yawned was Dongmyeong, shortly after followed by Dongju, still standing uncertain on his feet and limping here and there.

Sehyoon offered them a basket of freshly plucked flowers and berries, which he had found while tracking down a hare all the way down to a vale where the snow was dissolving, and about which he was talking to Donghun: they were close to the ends of the winter realm, but all their effort risked being in vain if Yuchan was not going to wake up from his hibernation after that intense exploitation of his magic.

The two twins overheard them speaking and, without being noticed, they walked up to see the kind Prince who had saved them. He looked tired, even though he was sleeping, his breath was feeble and his fur dull and frizzy. 

After the two of them sat in a corner, huddling up for a while, Dongju stood up, followed by Dongmyeong, and shyly poked on the broad shoulders of Donghun, who was still hooked on his animose conversation with Sehyoon.

“Excuse me, kind sir,” he muttered, timidly raising his big hazel eyes, beautifully framed by long, thick lashes, “Would you mind explaining to us what it is that seems to be concerning you and your partner so much?”

“You see, we have been with our Prince Yuchan from his childhood, and back in the days when he was very young, our realm was involved in a strenuous conflict with the nearby human tribes of the Northern Plains. They tried to kidnap our people’s cubs and to enslave the others, for they believed that our lineage was inferior to the human one and meant to serve and obey, therefore anyone opposing their plan of subjugating us to their domain would have been brutally beaten into allegiance or, if they would still have stood their ground against the humans, mercilessly slaughtered. This madness went on for many years and we lost so many innocent lives in order to defend ourselves, to preserve our right to lead a free, peaceful, independent life, to be acknowledged as a race that deserved the same exact respect and rights as humans. But nothing ever comes for free, and during our last Liberation War, we lost our King and Queen, Yuchan’s parents, as they fought valiantly against a tribe of human hunters who set an ambush for them. Yuchan found himself at the head of a population that risked becoming extinct in a matter of months, with no guidance and not a glimmer of hope. The situation was so desperate that he didn’t even have the time to mourn. When we left with him for the front… that was when we all discovered that our Prince had been gifted with healing magic. He saved most of our troops and it was only thanks to his priceless selflessness and courage that, eventually, when he took the lead of our army, we managed to push back the humans for good. Not only did he save the last of us, but he also demanded that all the hybrids held in captivity would be returned to him unharmed. Yuchan granted to our people the freedom, peace, dignity and respect which we had been denied and has ruled us with fairness and generosity ever since. But our realm is located in a very remote area, where an eternal winter reigns all year long, and that means we rely on our stock of food supplies to not starve. Nonetheless, the quantities of food that once granted us abundance for everyone, with the increasing growth of the population soon were not enough anymore. So, our Prince and we started to travel to foreign realms to ask for food in exchange for the Prince’s magic services, but we had to do it more and more often, and now every little use of his powers terribly exhausts Yuchan, to the point that now we fear for his life whenever he does that.” Donghun spoke, tears wetting his long, sloped lashes, while Sehyoon put his arm around his shoulders to offer him comfort.

“We have suffered enough. We have mourned enough innocents. We don’t want to lose our Prince, because we all love and cherish him more than words can say. He has saved us in our last hour, in our time of utmost need, when all hope seemed to be lost for good, and now what pains us is that we cannot seem to find a way to save him.” Sehyoon added, looking at Yuchan sleeping from the corner of his golden eyes. 

“I see,” Dongju said, giving a knowing gaze to his brother, their fingers instinctively intertwining themselves together in a tight hold “We understand your sorrow. You see, we used to be part of a very large herd, with other fawns, stags, does. We are naturally meek, gentle, harmless creatures, only seeking harmony with nature and other creatures of the woods. Our existence may be deemed a simple one, but we loved it like that: an endless, precious, cycle of balance and respect between our lives and the surrounding environment. We do not hunt, we do not harm. But when men discovered our safe haven, things changed for good and we suddenly became their prey. They came after us in groups, they threw arrows at us, they placed traps everywhere and, eventually, nearly exterminated us. We were not prepared for such cruelty. We couldn’t fathom their madness, their bloodlust, nor the complexity of the engineering of violence they deployed against us, who had in no way provoked or seeked such fate. Unfortunately, our King was not nearly a fighter. Our people were doomed from the beginning. When our mother hid us in the hollow of a trunk, to get us away from harm, we knew she would have never returned. No one in our herd did. . When we came out of there, Myeongie and I immediately understood that we were the last of our kind. And now we live, hidden, in absolute secrecy, trying to protect each other the best way we can, but as you have seen, we’re still endangered.”

“But you saved me and Dongju,” intervened Dongmyeong, holding his brother tight. “And for that we would like to thank you with a gift, one for each of you, when we arrive in our valley.”

The two fawns finally smiled at Sehyoon and Donghun, who were suddenly reminded of the promise they had made to their Prince to take them back to their home safe and sound.

They politely thanked them for their offer before collecting their belongings and, while Sehyoon opened the line, holding the two twins by the hands and following their lead, Donghun followed, carrying the sleeping Prince in his arms.

After half a day of march, they started to notice how the landscape around them was changing: the pines had given way to oaks, beeches and chestnut trees to prosper on an increasingly warmer and hillier landscape. Instead of the endless mantle of snow, the green grass, bushes and leaves were now covering the soft soil in a mosaic of colours so vivid and bright that Sehyoon and Donghun almost teared up a little at that sight. Living in an eternally frozen land indeed had its beauty, but at the same time it made them miss terribly that kind of landscape, of weather, of sounds, of smells, of hues evoking a nature they had long forgotten how it felt living amongst. Once they arrived to the valley, the joy of Dongju and Dongmyeong was so contagious, as they festively got carried away by their enthusiasm and begun to hop around the meadow, falling in patches of daisies through swarms of petals floating around them and giggling wholeheartedly, that even the two guards felt like coming home, for some absurd, inexplicable reason. That place was welcoming, serene, even soothing, and yet Donghun and Sehyoon couldn’t feel completely happy: Yuchan hadn’t woken up yet. He was there, breathing regularly, all snuggled under the blanket, fingers tightly clenched around some leather straps of Donghun’s vest and lips slightly curled in a pout, his head softly resting against his guard’s firm torso as he gave no signs of being close to waking up.

Ever so gently, the tiger guard lowered his head to tenderly brush his forehead against the Prince’s one, a sad, muffled groan vibrating in the deep of his throat as he held Yuchan tighter, trying to hide how powerless and defeated he felt. Sehyoon wrapped his hands around Donghun’s waist, in a very appreciated, yet unsuccessful, attempt to comfort him.

Sure, they adored their Prince, but they had spent so much time by his side, getting to know his pure soul, his soft, playful nature, his selfless character, his wit of mind and depth of reasoning, that the natural lines of their faithfulness and devotion had progressively gotten blurred with something else. Something more. Something that was not inherent to the respect and patriotic affection for the young monarch, far distant from the admiration and allegiance they pledged to him. Something that turned the unspeakable terror of losing Yuchan into a crippling grasp that took their breath away and nearly choked them with its paralyzing effect.

“You must love him very much, don’t you?” Dongju’s voice reverberated at their back, snapping them out of their gloom, together with Dongmyeong, who stood next to him, holding his hand “No need to answer. You would lie. Follow us inside our humble cottage, your Prince may use the comfort of a warm bed and we will offer you food and drinks in the meantime.”

The cottage looked ancient and run-down, not to mention how its exteriors, completely swallowed by ivy and bushes of wild roses all around its perimeter, made it look quite unkempt, but soon enough Donghun and Sehyoon noticed how that was nothing in comparison to the inside: the essential pieces of furniture were cluttered with dusty glass jars, wooden boxes, ancient books, bunches of dried herbs and copper tools and pans left here and there. The smell inside the house, though, was all but unpleasant: there was a somehow persistent, yet not nearly invasive, scent of burnt sage and rosewood, complimented by the aromatic fumes of handfuls of incense crystals burning in brazen burners filled with hot pieces of coal. Dongmyeong swiftly removed some piles of books from a couple of unsteady stools to allow Donghun and Sehyoon to sit down, after they had laid Yuchan on one of the small wooden beds of the twins.

“We want to thank the both of you for making sure we would have made it home safe and sound and Prince Yuchan for saving our lives in an appropriate way,” Dongmyeong began to speak, as he placed a terracotta bowl, filled with a mixture of small seeds and herbs, on the table and poured some dark honey inside of it “As we said, we live in perfect balance and harmony with nature. Which means that any good deed must be rewarded with a proper retribution, corresponding in both intensity and value to the original one, in order to maintain the same flow of positive energy in the world. So, if you’ll allow us, we would first and foremost grant to each of you one wish, just like you granted us our own.”

“I would like for our people to not experience hunger anymore, for we can provide for their safety, but hunger leads to illnesses that are unfathomable. If none of us would get ill, if none of us would starve anymore, Yuchan could spare his energies and not consume himself so much.” Donghun said, his head held up high, but a faint blush rising on his cheeks: he was not used to asking something for himself. He was a guard, he would sometimes give suggestions, but most of the time his job consisted of obeying orders, not expressing what his heart desired. 

Dongju looked at him with a sweet smile on his lips as he lit up a white candle, then walked towards him and sprinkled his forehead with salt flakes, while letting a couple drops of wax from the candle drip on his skin. He moved his hands as if he was drawing circles in the air surrounding Donghun, dipped his fingers in the mixture Dongmyeong had prepared in the bowl and used them to trace a long line across Donghun’s forehead, before blowing on the candle, right in front of the guard’s eyes.

Donghun didn’t understand what was going on, but all of a sudden he got dizzy and sleepy, so much that he had a hard time keeping his eyes open.

“I have nothing to wish for myself. But grown very fond of you both and I’m genuinely concerned for what may come if you will remain here alone, all on your own, at the humans’ mercy” said Sehyoon, shyly “If I may, I would wish that you two joined our court, so that we could offer you protection and you would never have to fear for your lives again.”

This time, it was Dongmyeong who executed the same exact ritual as his brother, but on Sehyoon, who, just like Donghun, felt the same sense of sudden dizziness and sleepiness right after he was done. After a few minutes, the guards fell asleep on their stools, leaning down the table, heads nestled in their crossed arms, while the smoke from the incense filled the room.

Dongju and Dongmyeong then sat on the opposite sides of the bed on which Yuchan was sleeping and repeated their ritual once more, this time together, taking turns and alternating each other in its phases, until it was completed. When they were done, the Prince started coughing convulsively, an icy mist leaving his mouth with every cough and snowflakes falling from his eyes, turning into tears as soon as they touched his cheeks. He still looked very weak, but his complexion had turned a healthy pink colour and the livid dark circles had disappeared from under his eyes. The fawn twins laid down on the bed, next to him, exhausted after such an intensive use of their magic, holding each other’s hand across the Prince’s body and wrapping him up in their embrace.

What the twin hybrids hadn’t revealed to Yuchan and his guards was that they were the last two beholders of an ancient form of magic, which was way before any other form of language, art or science, before humans, hybrids and animals would walk the land, and which could never be taught, but was transmitted by bloodline from the dawn of times. The kind of charms they were harbingers for were deeply rooted in the ancestral laws of life and nature, revolving around the force with which the world would have always strived to counterbalance good and evil, in a precious, golden ring of eternal retribution that granted life as they knew it to persist and prosper in its purest, most perfect form.

But those laws, that magic, could be used for anyone except for any form of selfish desire, including the right to exist in the world, nor for any personal vengeance, respite or rebuke. They were keepers of balance and had not been allowed to alter it, in any possible direction.

Dongju and Dongmyeong were the guardians of such wisdom, which they had treasured and defended for their whole existence, even when it had come at a great price for them, and only revealed their gift to those with a heart sincere enough to earn their favour. 

When the amaranth light of the sunset stretched its grasp on the enchanted valley and on the cottage where all of them had been resting and recovering, an uncountable series of whirlwinds made of impalpable, glistening specs of light left the ground and rose in elegant ascensional movements to the sky, until all the surroundings had been swallowed by their blinding magnificence. 

The universe had received the magic effluvium emanated by the selflessly holy intentions of Dongju and Dongmyeong and was adjusting itself in order to ever so gracefully, in all of its almighty blissfulness, grant them the accomplishment of their wishes.

The light particles kept rising and the celestial spheres sang their melody of gentle choirs and brazen bells, as they revolved around themselves to morph the reality in accordance to the magical intentions expressed by Dongju and Dongmyeong, and didn’t stop until the will of the world matched their one in all and for all.

The dawn came, and it brought with itself a new world, apparently identical to the previous one, if not for the enchanted vale, which was now beautifully populated by all the hybrids that used to live in Yuchan’s court. They went to sleep in a land of ice and had awakened in the middle of that expanse of woodland, in the middle of a paradisiac haven where the sound of the ice flurries had been replaced by the birds singing and a soft mantle of dewy grass had substituted the snowy blanket, that embraced everything with its eternal presence. In the middle of gleeful chants of the population, that was already hailing at the miracle, Yuchan, Dongmyeong, Dongju, Sehyoon and Donghun eventually came back to their senses, but immediately noticed that they had not woken up in the cluttered cottage of the twins, where they last were, as far as they could recall: they were in the royal chambers of Yuchan’s palace, where nothing had changed, except for the fact that the palace had replaced the cottage at the center of the valley.

All of them rushed to open up the wide crystal windows and admired the prodigy with astonishment, including Yuchan, who had no idea of how or when any of that had happened and who clearly demanded an explanation.

“Where... Where are we?” The Prince asked, ears tensed attentively and tail vivaciously swaying in excitement as he studied the environment, looking around himself, recognising his palace, then out of the windows, in utter disbelief “Is this the valley you were talking about? Did we make it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Answered Dongmyeong “Thanks to the priceless efforts of Donghun and Sehyoon, we arrived here safe and sound.”

“Your Majesty,” Dongju said, kneeling down in front of him, together with Dongmyeong “Welcome to your new kingdom. Please allow us to homage you and all of your court with the gift of a land where you will never know starvation, or cold, or illness ever again, where you will be finally able to regain all of your forces, without being weakened by the frost, the exhaustion and the hunger, where you will be able to grant to your court a long and blissful existence.”

“But how could all of this be possible? And, even more so,  _ why _ ? I did nothing to deserve all this grace...” Yuchan said, tilting his head, while flagging to Donghun and Sehyoon to get close to him, clenching his hands around the ones of his guards, who were on the brink of tears as they saw their Prince in unbelievably good health conditions.

“Well, this is a very long story which, I trust, we will have a long time to go through in the smallest details in the future. For now, know that this is our present to reward your kindness in saving our lives at the risk of your own, and to homage the incredible faithfulness and selflessness proven by Donghun and Sehyoon, who not only made sure we all arrived here harmlessly, but also asked nothing for themselves when we offered them to grant them any of their wishes. It is our pleasure to welcome such a capable, valiant and good hearted monarch in our land and to offer you our services.” Dongmyeong answered, waiting alongside Dongju for a gesture of the Prince that would have allowed them to stand up.

“I… I do not just owe you my life, I owe you the ones of all of my people… I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to express how grateful I am…” Yuchan answered, glistening tears hanging on his long lashes, as he dropped on his knees in front of the fawn twins, overwhelmed with emotion.

“Just accept to reign over us with the same spirit with which you did on your people so far. Do you think you could accord us this privilege, Majesty?” Dongju asked, gently taking the Prince’s hand in his own and caressing his palm with tenderness, while Dongmyeong delicately patted his back to soothe him as he couldn’t help but sigh.

“Yes…” Yuchan whispered, through the tears “If this is all you ask in return for your magnanimity, I think I could do that…”

“Well, then,” Dongmyeong added, cupping the Prince’s face in his hands and drying his eyes with soft brushes of his thumbs “I suggest you compose yourself, Majesty. Don’t you hear the voices of your people? They’re calling your name. We don’t want to make them wait, do we?”

Yuchan sniffled and smiled, in agreement, as he allowed his guards to help him stand up on his feet and Dongju brushed his hair in place with his fingers, before placing a small tiara made of golden branches and decorated with crystal gems on top of his head. Then, he walked up to the balauster of his chamber’s central window and took a deep breath. In front of his eyes, a prodigiously prosperous land, thriving with exceptional beauty at every corner, promised to the Prince and his people the peace and abundance they had been so long striving for.

After all his travels, after all his efforts, after his endless dreams for a better future for his people, that so many had deemed as mindless utopias, Yuchan realized that he had finally made it. He was truly, ultimately at home, and for the first time in forever, despite his people having been always unconditionally on his side to support him and reassure him in all of his decisions, he truly knew, with all of his heart, that thanks to the blessings of Dongju and Dongmyeong and to the faithfulness and love of Donghun and Sehyoon, he had accomplished the purpose for which he had strived for during all of his life.

  
  
  



End file.
